I urge caution in calls for the federal Liberal and New Democratic Parties to establish a coalition to oust the Conservatives and form a new majority government. Canadian social democrats and trade unionists need to consider carefully where this trajectory may lead.

The call for a coalition has a broader context; there has been muttered debate within NDP circles for at least a couple of years about whether it makes sense to maintain the party as a separate entity, or whether it should merge into the Liberals. That discussion reflects the steady NDP drift to the political centre, the abandonment of most vestiges of CCF-stye socialism in its program, and the resultant narrowing of the ideological space between the two parties.

The pro-coalition push within the NDP has not only stemmed from that dialogue, but has in turn injected the merger option with greater momentum. Even if the immediate demand is for a parliamentary coalition to defeat Harper’s minority government, if that were achieved the obvious next question would be what the point is in operating as two parties. In that scenario, they would presumably avoid running candidates against each other at election time, and they would advance and apply a common program as government.